Just saying the words Mission Accomplished inspires a positive feeling and a sense of success. In recent months, I’ve often found myself having conversations with friends and colleagues regarding whether I’ve reached that point in my career and if it’s time to “pass the torch.”
At the 2010 ATRA EXPO, the Executive Editor of GEARS Magazine Rodger Bland introduced me as a Brett Favre “wanna be” because only Brett had threatened to retire more times than I had. Ironically, that was the same year Brett Favre finally retired.
Well, to quote Elton John, “I’m still standing,” and I don’t have any short-term plans for hanging it up, entirely. However, beginning with this year’s EXPO, I am starting to make a transition. My son, Retired Major Jonathan Tschetter will be one of the management speakers at the combined AAPEX, SEMA, and ATRA Powertrain EXPO in Las Vegas, November 5th – 7th.
Please allow me to brag about my son and explain why you don’t want to miss Jon’s presentation titled, Mission Accomplished – How Special Forces Leadership Tactics Can Boost Your Shop’s Performance.
Jon is a decorated leader who has served as an Airborne Ranger, Green Beret, ODA Team Commander, and Special Forces Company Commander, primarily operating in the Middle East. He led combat operations and over 85 successful missions behind enemy lines during his career. Additionally, Jon worked for 2 years with “Black Water” as a Detail Leader and Program Manager, protecting U.S. Diplomats in Iraq.
In his presentation, Jon will explain how to apply the leadership tactics of the “Special Forces” in your shop. You’ll be amazed at the similarities between running a shop and leading a military operation. He’ll also lace in some astonishing stories of actual missions demonstrating the importance of teamwork centered on mission success.
Operational Detachment Alpha teams (ODA or A-Teams for short) are highly skilled, extremely agile, cross-trained on each team member’s specialty, and extremely committed to one another. With 12 or fewer team members, one ODA team can recruit, organize, train, lead, command, and control a 1,000+ indigenous partisan force, executing unconventional guerilla warfare. The secret is mutual trust, clarity of purpose, and mission focus.
Think of your shop’s team as an ODA team and how this might apply in your shop.
In the highly competitive automotive repair industry, excellence is not merely about fixing cars; it’s about consistently delivering high-quality service and ensuring customer satisfaction. To achieve these goals, many repair shops are integrating 4 quality management concepts: Total Quality Management (TQM), Management by Objectives (MBO), Internal Customer Service, and Zero Defects. These concepts can be synthesized to optimize operations and drive success in an automotive repair shop.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is the engine of the integrated concepts, providing a comprehensive approach aimed at improving quality across all organizational processes. For an automotive repair shop, TQM involves a commitment from all employees to continuously improve service quality. This philosophy is based on several core principles:
Customer Focus: The primary goal is to meet or exceed customer expectations. For a repair shop, this means ensuring that repairs are done correctly and on time with excellent communication throughout the process.
Continuous Improvement: TQM encourages a culture where processes are regularly reviewed and improved as needed. This can involve refining repair procedures, adopting new technologies, and investing in staff training.
Employee Involvement: All staff members, from technicians to administrative personnel, participate in the quality improvement process. Their insights and feedback are crucial in finding areas for improvement.
Process Approach: Understanding and managing interrelated processes effectively is key. For instance, optimizing the workflow from vehicle intake to repair and delivery can reduce errors and increase efficiency.
By embedding TQM principles, an automotive repair shop can foster a culture of quality, where every team member is dedicated to delivering superior service.
Management by Objectives (MBO) is a strategic management model where objectives are defined and agreed upon collaboratively by management and employees. In an automotive repair shop, MBO can be applied as follows:
- Establish clear, measurable goals related to various aspects of the shop’s performance, such as customer satisfaction, repair turnaround times, and revenue targets.
- Engage employees in the goal-setting process. For example, technicians can set personal targets for repair accuracy or efficiency, while service advisors might focus on improving customer communication.
- Self-directed work teams with clearly defined objectives for each step in the workflow process can reduce the need for micro-managing. The aim of each step guides the employees as they complete the progressive steps for each job.
- Regularly measure performance, assessing progress toward goals. For a repair shop, this might involve tracking repair quality, customer feedback, and meeting scheduled timelines.
- Provide ongoing feedback and adjust objectives as needed. This helps ensure that goals are still relevant and challenging, fostering continuous improvement and staff motivation.
MBO aligns individual performance with the shop’s overall strategic goals, creating a cohesive approach to achieving success.
Internal Customer Service refers to the quality of service provided between employees within the organization. For an automotive repair shop, this involves:
Creating a work environment where employees support each other. Technicians, service advisors, and other staff members should work collaboratively to solve problems and enhance the service capability of colleagues.
Ensuring clear and open communication channels. For example, technicians should have access to accurate and timely information about repair orders and parts availability.
Seeking to serve and meet the needs of the team member who performs the next step in the repair process – the internal customer.
Providing employees with the tools, training, and resources they need to perform their jobs effectively. This could mean investing in advanced diagnostic equipment or offering regular training workshops.
Recognizing and rewarding employees for exceptional performance. This can boost morale and encourage a culture of excellence.
By prioritizing internal customer service, an automotive repair shop ensures that its employees are motivated, well-equipped, and aligned with the shop’s quality objectives.
Zero Defects is a quality management philosophy focused on eliminating errors and defects in processes. In the context of an automotive repair shop, this concept involves:
- Implementing robust procedures to prevent errors in repairs. This includes using checklists, standard operating procedures, and rigorous quality checks. It asks and answers this question for each step, “Can we consistently perform this step perfectly and if not, why not?”
- Ensuring that all technicians and staff are highly skilled and knowledgeable. Continuous training helps in minimizing mistakes and improving service quality.
- Establishing stringent quality control measures to catch and correct defects before vehicles are returned to customers. This could involve multiple levels of inspection and validation.
- Performing root cause analysis when defects do occur. Conduct thorough investigations (autopsies) to identify and address the failure point in the process and correct the root cause(s). This helps prevent recurrence and promotes a culture of continuous improvement.
- By striving for zero defects, an automotive repair shop can significantly enhance service reliability and customer satisfaction, ultimately leading to improved business outcomes.
To effectively integrate TQM, MBO, Internal Customer Service, and Zero Defects, an automotive repair shop should:
- Create a unified, comprehensive, quality management strategy that incorporates all four concepts. This strategy should align with the shop’s vision and goals.
- Foster and encourage collaboration between all employees to drive quality improvements and achieve objectives.
- Regularly measure performance against goals and review processes to ensure alignment with TQM principles and zero defects targets.
- Cultivate a culture of continuous improvement where feedback is actively sought, and processes are regularly refined.
By synthesizing these concepts, an automotive repair shop can boost operational efficiency, improve service quality, and provide greater customer satisfaction. The result is Mission Accomplished with a more competitive and successful company poised to thrive in the ever-evolving realm of automotive repair.
To whet your appetite, here are a few more topics Jon will discuss at AAPEX.
- Why and when we say “HOOAH!” Create your company’s HOOAH!
- Taking it from strategy creation to plan execution to Mission Accomplished.
- SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis – Self SWOT analysis and Enemy (Competitor) SWOT analysis.
- Be brutally honest with yourself and your team.
- Plan your mission with the team you have – not with the team you wish you had.
- Mission Preparation – It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
- Leading prima donnas? Try leading an ODA team where the lowest rank is Sergeant.
Jon says, “The team leadership process is similar, but the risks and rewards are dramatically different, and in your shops, hopefully nobody is shooting at you.”
Thank you for allowing me to brag about my son, and I hope to see you at his presentation at AAPEX in Vegas at 9:AM on November 7th.
About the author — Thom Tschetter has served our industry for over four decades. His article topics come from our readers and Thom’s years as a speaker, writer, certified arbitrator, business consultant, and his own in-the-trenches experiences. Thom owned a chain of award-winning transmission shops in Washington State, and ATRA presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his years of training for the transmission industry.
